Menu

Ethics

Is this the new norm of political discourse? We believe that Trump has legitimized political trolling on social media and on occasions goes too far. However, one has to question those who continually assert they hold the moral high ground end up resorting to doing the same thing. All is fair in love and war?

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser took to using taxpayer funds to rename a section of 16th street in front of the White House, “Black Lives Matter Plaza” in what can only be described as a stunt to troll Trump. Should taxpayer funds be diverted to help boost politically aligned organisations?

Naturally, the Left is ecstatic. Yet another hijacking of the George Floyd movement.

Before fuelling her Trump Derangement Syndrome, perhaps the mayor might have reflected on the fact that the very police department that reports to her has killed 23 black people and 1 white person since 2013, by far the worst ratio compared to any American state. Why hasn’t Black Lives Matter smashed down her door to protest this abhorrent statistic?

Her own constituents took to Twitter to complain about Bowser’s political statement.

“Murals are performative, budgets are not.

If you wants to show #BlackLivesMatter in DC, why don’t you respond to @DMVBlackLives demands, which include #DefundMPD?

Is this how Americans want elected officials to behave? Do Americans want governments who are tight on cash, especially after months of being forced to stay at home (note Bowser’s Twitter handle still implores it) to splurge on political statements to troll someone they despise? DC public sector wage freezes are in effect, hiring is to be curtailed and building projects cut.

No doubt the tins of yellow paint and the labour wouldn’t have amounted to much more than a rounding error on the district’s budget, but it is the principle (or lack thereof).

The irony is that Trump has openly stated the death of George Floyd was a tragedy and immediately mobilized the FBI and DOJ to investigate and get to the bottom of it.

What does BLM stand for? It states that it “work(s) vigorously for freedom and justice for Black people and, by extension, all people.“

Darien High School Principal Ellen Dunn sent an email to parents promising to increase the amount of race-conscious education in the curriculum by distributing documents from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). For context, the SPLC sacked its co-founder in March 2019. Soon after the president resigned amidst numerous claims of sexual harassment, gender discrimination and racism within the organization failing at the very virtues it pretends to instil.

The 1619 Project, started by The New York Times Magazine, is now a mandatory part of the curriculum in state schools across Buffalo, Chicago, Newark and Washington. The 1619 Project documents 400 years of slavery. Its creator, Nikole Hannah-Jones, is a Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter covering racial injustice for The New York Times Magazine. However, four days ago she openly said that,

“Destroying property, which can be replaced, is not violence.”

Is that a mandatory lesson that parents want their kids to learn? If junior gets angry over an issue, kicking in the doors of the family car is an acceptable and reasoned response which should be forgiven?

Which brings us back to one of Black Lives Matter’s key demands – to defund the Minneapolis Police Department (and no doubt others too). Should Bowser also bow to those demands as her constituents argue? Afterall her deaths at the hands of the DC Police stats are the worst of all.

The Minneapolis City Council is seriously debating the topic of defunding the police. Council Member Steve Fletcher wrote that the police department was “irredeemably beyond reform” and that “several of us on the council are working on finding out what it would take to disband the Minneapolis Police Department and start fresh with a community-oriented, nonviolent public safety and outreach capacity.”

Which begs the question, what will citizens who are victims of crime do if the police force disappears? People will leave and exacerbate economic hardship.

In Jan 2017, we wrote a piece on what cutting funding (not defunding) police departments did to the City of Detroit. From a peak of 1.8mn people in the 1950s, the city has shrunk to around 1/3rd that level. It continues to fall in 2020. It is now 2/3rds of the population of 100 years ago.

Some 78,000 homes are unoccupied in the city, and in 2011 half of the occupiers of the city’s 305,000 properties paid no tax. The white population has shrunk from 90% of the city in the 1960s to less than 9%. The black community has grown from 4% to 83% over the same period although their population is falling in absolute terms. Violent crime in absolute terms exceeds that of New York.

7% of public parks have been permanently closed since 2008 and the police force has been cut by 40% in the last decade. Most police stations are closed 16 hours a day and response times are around one hour. The police were asking residents to call only in an emergency to prevent overloading the limited resources.

Brian Fallon, a former spokesman for the Justice Department under Obama’s former Attorney General Eric Holder tweeted, “Defund the Police.” Maybe Hillary Clinton’s security detail should be defunded too? Fallon is currently the executive director of Demand Justice, a progressive movement that strives to get liberal justices appointed to federal courts.

An online petition has been launched to defund the police across the country. It is supported by singer John Legend, hypocritical feminist soccer star Megan Rapinoe and Hollywood stars Natalie Portman and Jane Fonda, among others. We guess it is ok to take away everyone else’ security when one can afford their own armed rent-a-cop.

Is this the country Americans want? The left-wing of the Democratic Party and their radical supporters are literally painting their lunatic policies to the road for all of America to see. Defund the police? Use taxpayer funds to promote tribalism? Introduce school curriculums as early as elementary schools to indoctrinate kids about “white rage”? Keep it up.

For as much as many Americans struggle to put up with Trump for all of his antics, the left is hardly making a compelling argument as a viable alternative. Perhaps Mayor Bowser can paint #FuckTrump in rainbow colours out the front of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue facing toward the Oval Office to seal the deal.

No one should be seeking to exploit the loss of George Floyd at the hands of inexcusable police brutality. Sadly, the #GeorgeFloyd demonstrations have been brazenly hijacked by a growing number of anarchists assisted by willing accomplices in the media to fan the flames of sedition. As Hillary Clinton said, “never let a good crisis go to waste!”

Let’s not forget that the majority of Americans were united against what transpired. Yet the first thing the press seized on was to promote the idea of division.

Yes, in certain pockets of society systemic racism exists in America. It shouldn’tbut it does.No amount of kneeling or social media virtuesignaling can convince those who have hate in their hearts to change. Burning down buildings only hardens their beliefs.

We found a curious documentaryseveral years ago about Daryl Davis, a black man who befriended the KKK.Davis found that listening to them was all that was required. He has caused many to hand in their robes. There is reason why god gave us two ears and one mouth – so we listen more and talk less. We encourage you to watch the full episode. It is eye opening.

Unfortunately, as we pointed out a few days ago, the statistics simply do not bear a deepening rift in race relations to be the case.

We see these as more accurate representations of the mood of the majority of average Americans than mindless clickbait journalists and Twitterati deliberately try to ignore.

Economist and social theorist, Thomas Sowell once said,

“Activism is a way for useless people to feel important, even if the consequences of their activism are counterproductive for those they claim to be helping and damaging to the fabric of society as a whole.”

We posted a video of Washington DC resident Nestride Yumga who took on hundreds of Black Lives Matter (BLM) protestors for rank hypocrisy because they don’t attempt to raise awareness for the 191 homicides in Chicago so far this year.

We noted that BLM have been silent over the death of 77yo African American David Dorn, a retired Louisville Police captain, was killed by a rioter defending a pawnshop over a TV.

David McAtee was a 53-year-old African American man known for providing free meals to police officers who stopped by his restaurant was killed in a shoot out he was not a part of. Where was BLM?

FNF Media is no fan of slacktivism, the idea that moral preening on social media is enough to make one worthy. In the end, the cause ends up all about themselves – upping evidence of keyboard commitment to ensure acceptance. Still BLM focused anger at the overuse of their hashtag, not the actual problems of people dying in cold blood.

Many more police officers of all races have been injured, shot and several killed during the violence. Americans are appalled. Violence IS the problem.

Almost everything in the mainstream media (MSM) has become sensationalism writ large. When clickbait driven advertising revenues are at stake and an opportunity to knock off the very head that fuels their derangement, objectivity be damned.

Peaceful demonstrations to raise awareness about corrupt cops and the problems created by centuries of systemic racism are enshrined in the constitution. Trump openly stated he wants to protect 1A. Yet CNN’s Don Lemon had the nerve to call Trump’s actions the path to a “dictatorship.” His colleagues on the scene spoke of “mostly peaceful protests” as one stood in front of a building which was engulfed in 40ft high flames and another dodging bottles hurled at him.

The MSM went out of its way to talk about peaceful demonstrators being brutally suppressed by vindictive law enforcement officers. Innocent protestors have become unfortunate collateral damage in too many cases, mostly due to the proximity of the rioters to them.

Perhaps keyboard warriors might propose what the police should do in order to maintain order? Should law enforcement ask each protestor if they intend to commit acts of theft, violence or assault? It is just not an option when rioters are exacerbating the protestors’ suffering in the same areas. The rioters couldn’t give a damn about George Floyd. That is self-evident.

Think through the logic of those who have spent a lifetime building a business. If Trump says he wants to overwhelm vandals who have no qualms destroying their innocent livelihoods with a bigger show of force where do you think the public sympathy will lie? The promise to follow up with harsh sentencing via the brainless uploading of their crimes to social media feeds will only win more support,

Then we had sanctimonious celebrities spewing hypocrisy behind gated mansions with armed rent-a-cops who would shoot rioters on a whim if they were threatened. Hollywood only proved Ricky Gervais 100% correct.

The Left has demanded Trump reason with the rioters. How would appeasement tactics work with a group who utterly despise him? Had he played defence it would have given the mob a free license to push the crisis into overdrive which is exactly what they crave. After all, the ends justify the means.

The media relished the chance to tag Trump as a coward, claiming he had fled to his bunker. Such calls are made solely at the discretion of the Secret Service, the people paid to protect him. This is exactly why he staged the walk across Lafayette Square ahead of his security team and pose in front of St. Johns Church to debunk that narrative.

Yet journalists devoted more outrage over this action to clear a path to the house of worship than the very acts of the rioters who unsuccessfully tried to burn it to the ground a day earlier. Priorities.

The media repeatedly pushed lies about tear gas being used on those peaceful protestors outside 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Never mind that the US Park Police went on record to deny that accusations and state they had been attacked with projectiles “including bricks, frozen water bottles and caustic liquids” and “found caches of glass bottles, baseball bats and metal poles hidden along the street.” Must be the same peaceful protestors CNN has talked about.

Trump has only one real option – play offense. Which he is doing. Most Americans want an end to seeing footage of police in Buffalo being callously run down by speeding rioters or other cops being shot and filmed as they bleed out. They want law and order restored and the longer it goes the more angry they will get at authorities sitting doing nothing when they were only too happy to issue citations for violating stay at home orders.

Yet it doesn’t matter what Trump does. Even if he delivered the very script the MSM wrote for him, they’d find fault.

We could go on and on.

We should all condemn all violence and vigorously defend the right to free speech. What we are seeing is activists pushing for more of the former and less of the latter. That should tell us much.

We think these riots have solidified Trump’s chances for re-election. Fewer Americans want to be associated with groups that openly embrace thuggery and looting as fair game.

Lived experience through the past two weeks of violence and the past three months of lockdown are enough evidence to prove that Americans are growing tired of anarchy and totalitarianism. There is only one candidate who openly stands against it – Trump.

Two other things we’ve learnt.

The picture at the top depicts yet more sanctimonious hijacking of the George Floyd tragedy by protestors in Sydney (and many other countries). Despite facts borne out of a Royal Commission that aboriginal deaths in custody were no different to any other demographic, woke mobs think killing cops is something to boast about.

The only other thing we’ve learnt is that ignoring social distancing doesn’t seem to be a problem either.

With so much race-baiting drivel from the mainstream media, here is a video which lists many of the good things that are happening in America that the press wouldn’t show in a pink fit because torn asunder that might contradict the narrative and shed more light on their lack of journalistic integrity.

Why do the media persist in making out that people are too stupid to see with their own eyes that their life experiences don’t reflect a tiny proportion of people hell-bent on taking advantage of their own agenda by using a nation-uniting tragedy?

Police brutality has reared its ugly head after the completely unnecessary death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis Police. We don’t need to add anything to this unjustified action. It spoke for itself. It is fair to say that the overwhelming majority of Americans have been united behind the need to end such injustice with a bipartisan spirit. The optics of Floyd’s murder were terrible. Unfortunately, the mainstream media (MSM) wasted no time taking advantage of feeding their political narratives.

Looting stores, trashing police cruisers, torching police stations and throwing bricks through store windows is ‘rioting’, yet the media has been all too happy to label it ‘protesting’. Many protestors were peaceful but they just don’t make for TV and ratings. If it bleeds, it leads.

Journalistic integrity has been even more absent than usual. Statements released by the police in cities affected have revealed that most of those arrested/identified for criminal acts such as theft, destruction of property or arson have been from out of town/state and from every racial background imaginable. Many rioters have filmed their own crimes and posted them on social media. One hopes that the police track them, find them and jail them. Not for misdemeanours but proper crimes befitting their brazen actions.

Hollywood celebrities Steve Carrell, Janelle Monae, Seth Rogen, Ben Schwartz and Halsey all donated to a Minnesota Freedom Fund to help bail out rioters. That ought to tell us something. Afterall they are unaffected behind gated mansions but only too happy to lecture the rest of us on societal morals. There is no room to morally preen in the midst of a tragedy.

It has been despicable to see protests meant to honour the memory of an innocent black man and raise awareness of deaths at the hands of the police take a backseat to partisan politics and media clickbait.

Twitter wasted no time calling out President Trump for “glorifying violence” with his poorly conveyed “when the looting starts, shooting starts” tweet. The MSM wasted no time in pointing out Trump has been behind all of the racial division over the past 3.5 years despite the fact that deaths at the hands of law enforcement have remained relatively stagnant since 2013 as shown in the first chart.

Since Trump took office, crime rates have fallen across the board. The FBI reports the following statistics.

Why isn’t crime exploding through the roof if there is so much division and hatred across America? Could it be thanks to the economic prosperity in his term in office?

In January 2020 a poll taken by Gallup showed that race relations had improved to 36% under Trump from the 22% at the end of Obama’s second term. Yet the media is obsessed with painting Trump out to be the key instigator in fanning racism. Of course, it would have to be in order for a media obsessed with one mission – removing him from office.

To them, Trump has enabled the unforgivable actions of the individual law enforcement officer in question, Derek Chauvin. It fits their headlines. The Daily Beast ran with,

Around 7,700 people have been killed by police across America between Jan 1, 2013 and Dec 31, 2019. That is an average of 1,100 per annum. An unfortunate statistic by any measure.

71% of those that were killed were reported as having possessed a weapon at the time of death. 14% were unarmed (including possession of a toy gun, BB gun or air rifle). 8.5% of cases were unclear. 74% of those with a weapon had a lethal firearm. 22% had sharp implements (e.g. swords, knives, machetes) and the balance had blunt objects (e.g. baseball bats, pipes, clubs).

On the flip side, no one mentions those police officers that die in the line of duty. Between Jan 1, 2013,and Dec 31, 2019, 327 have died from gunfire or assault by an assailant. Many more have succumbed to accidents in carrying out their jobs. Out of a law enforcement population of around 688,000 across America that is a death rate by an assault of 0.0077% per annum.

As a percentage of the representative population, black Americans have been killed by police at a higher rate than most other races. This is a fact. With the exception of 5 states – Montana, New Hampshire, North & South Dakota and Wyoming.

Over the last seven years, Utah has the highest rate of black deaths per head of population at 0.0045%, 9x that of other races over that period. Annualising that figure comes to 0.0006%. That is to say, 99.9994% of blacks in Utah are unlikely to die at the gunpoint of a police officer. To put that into perspective, a black individual would have a 280x higher chance of dying of Parkinson’s disease than from a police officer in Utah. A police officer has a 13x higher likelihood of dying than a black person in Utah as a percentage of their respective representative populations.

In absolute numbers, the Chicago Police Department has been responsible for the deaths of 56 black Americans in the last 7 years. Note that the big cities in America have been responsible for 39% of all black deaths at the hands of the police.

We colour coded the party affiliation of the city mayors (Democrat (blue), Republican (red), Independent (green). This is for illustrative purposes only.

We wish to make it clear that we don’t think party affiliation drives individual police officer behaviour. It should be noted that city mayors have control over the conduct of the police force including the appointment of police chiefs. So political positions to a degree would have a bearing on the way police operate in terms of targets and functions at the margin. Perhaps this is why Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot told Trump “F U” due to his criticism of mayors around the country not being able to quell rioter in their cities.

Former Minnesota Police Department (MPD) officer Derek Chauvin had 17 misconduct complaints against him over his two-decade career. Despite charges of using derogatory language and one case of killing someone he was wrestling with, Chauvin only received letters of reprimand.

Were policy procedures to blame? The MPD was subject to a federal review of procedures in 2015. The statistics revealed that few officers were fired or suspended for claims against them. The majority were either reprimanded or given extra coaching. Yet MPD still continued to see complaints pile up.

Democrats tend to run more populous cities (e.g. NY, Chicago, Los Angeles) which have higher levels of absolute income disparity and poverty, even if not reflected in relative terms.

Phoenix PD has killed 40 whites since 2013. 3,385 whites have died from the gun barrel of the police, 84% of them outside of the big cities.

Columbus Division of Police has the highest rate among big cities at 40.8 deaths per 10,000 arrests, or 0.408%, 4x the big cities average. Los Angeles PD which has the highest rate of actual deaths at the hands of police had a death-to-arrest rate of 0.179%. Put simply, on average there is a 99.9% survival rate for those arrested in a big city.

Males represent nearly 95% of all deaths at the hands of police. Women just over 5%. Transgender and unknown make up 0.25%.

Of that white males comprise 43% of deaths by police with black males 26% and Hispanic males at 18%. As a percentage of the representative population, black males are dying at twice the rate of their population cohort and around 3x that of whites. Hispanic males dying in line with their population cohort.

When it comes to female deaths at the hands of the police, whites make up 57% of the total vs 18% black and 13% Hispanic. Still skewed against blacks relative to their representative populations.

In summary

Before this tragedy, crime rates had been falling precipitously. Race relations had been improving and hate crimes are well below long term rates. Yet the media would have us believe that things have never been worse and that the police are unhinged thugs looking to kill. Things are not perfect but change doesn’t happen overnight. Even when America unites to stand against this crime, fringe elements do their best to use the incident to tear it down for their own agendas.

Perhaps we should show that there are more people out there that want an end to the misinformation of the division. How disappointing for so many police who don’t want their diligent work besmirched by fake news surrounding the actions of a tiny minority within their ranks.

The Left misses the point every time. Conservatives don’t wish for Clementine Ford’s free speech to be curtailed or reined in at all. On the contrary. We think her comments speak for themselves. This comment was far from her worst. She is proud of her “potty mouth” as her Twitter handle boasts.

We find it utterly contemptible that the City of Melbourne’s Lord Mayor Sally Capp didn’t stand up and send a message by cancelling the grant funded by ratepayers. Instead she said it couldn’t be undone and expressed it only as, “deliberately divisive and incredibly unhelpful.”

While Ford walked back her comments with a ‘sorry, not sorry‘ tweet, had a man written “honestly, the corona virus isn’t killing women fast enough” the grant would have been rescinded immediately and the individual raked over coals for weeks.

The hypocrisy of the left is astounding. Recall soon to be retiring conservative radio personality Alan Jones who told NZ PM Ardern to “shove a sock down her throat“. We pointed out the sanctimony of brands like Koala who pulled advertising on the grounds that Jones didn’t reflect their values while at the same time had Clem Ford run a mattress campaign for them. It’s not the principle that matters but the side.

So please Clementine, tell us what you think always. Men aren’t triggered by such ridiculous empty rhetoric. They just find it appalling that the people entrusted to administer ratepayer funds can’t summon up the courage to practice the most basic level of governance and send a message that they have standards they hold ALL people to.

Trump’s new Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany is doing such a great job with the White House press corps. In this video clip she turns their lack of journalistic integrity back on them by providing a list of questions to pique their curiosity about #Obamagate instead of letting them indulge in their favorite pastime of creating false narratives.

We have compiled a spreadsheet titled ‘US State Governor Coronavirus Responses‘ to see who would appear to have the most despotic tendencies. We have broken down the categories by party affiliation, COVID19 infections, deaths and some choice quotes to express how some treat their minions. However there is one true standout governor that must be channeling former Albanian dictator Enver Hoxha for despotic tendencies.

Before we get accused of being partisan hacks, we note that in some states, governors have seemingly crossed their political ideologies in the opposite direction.

On balance, Republican governors have been far more eager to open up their economies and remove restrictions. Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota all resisted issuing stay-at-home orders, while Wyoming, Utah, Oklahoma and South Carolina have only issued such orders in specific parts of their states. All nine are Republican states. Most of these states encouraged “personal responsibility.”

Infection rates in the aforementioned 9 rogue states stand at only 0.2886% and death rates are at 0.0096%. The relatively spread out nature of these states no doubt helped. Instead of the predictions that death rates would spiral out of control, 99.99% of the population in these states continue to function.

On the other hand, Democrat governors have had far harsher restrictions with respect to stay at home laws. Some may argue that the population densities of New York skew the figures.

Analysing the data, 178.7 million Americans live in the 24 (+1) Democrat-run states (districts). 149.5 million in 26 Republican-controlled states. COVID-19 infections in Democrat states is at 1.07 million with deaths at 70,652. Republican-controlled states have 456,000 infections and only 21,700 deaths. That means that Democrat states have a 0.5995% infection rate and 0.0395% death rate vs Republicans at 0.3049% and 0.0145% respectively, or effectively half. Stripping out NY for the Democrats would kick those figures to 0.4452% and 0.0262%. This would mean that infection rates were still 46% and death rates 80% higher relatively speaking.

The mainstream media wasted no time pointing out the negligence of GOP states and the shocking reckoning that would follow.

Partisan paper, The Kansas City Star, lambasted Missouri Gov. Mike Parsons (R) on April 1. They contrasted his failures to the successes of NY Gov Cuomo (D), Kansas Gov Kelly (D) & Illinois Gov Pritzker (D) by saying, “Only three other governors in the country have been as laissez-faire as Parson has in dealing with a crisis the likes of which no one alive today has ever seen — and one that will define the legacy of most every elected official now serving.” 6 weeks after this prophecy, 99.99% of Missourians haven’t succumbed to COVID-19 vs 99.994% in Kansas, 99.96% in Illinois and NY at 99.85%. Hardly a train wreck for Parsons!

Perhaps what is scarier is the “staged approach” methodology to removing restrictions which do not seem to be based on robust scientific evidence but copying thy neighbour’s homework. Take a look at some of the gradual loosening of Australia’s restrictions and it smacks of the same “one size fits all” approach in many states in the US. e.g. 10 people only in restaurants. Social distancing etc. Hardly inspiring to have such a lack of independent thinking. Especially when the coronavirus statistics to date are anything remotely as reported in the hysteric media.

Enough from us. Let’s get down to the approaches of these American states.

The most in your face comment during the coronavirus came from Indiana Republican Rep. Trey Hollingsworth.

“It is policymakers’ decision to put on our big boy and big girl pants and say it is the lesser of these two evils…It is not zero evil, but it is the lesser of these two evils, and we intend to move forward that direction…We are going to have to look Americans in the eye and say, ‘We are making the best decisions for the most Americans possible,’ and the answer to that is to get Americans back to work, to get Americans back to their businesses”

We wonder why data means nothingto Hawaiian Gov David Ige (D)?

Hawaii has a 0.0012% COVID death rate, one of the lowest in the country but Democrat Gov. David Ige pushed the stay at home order to the end of June. Furthermore, in the first month, the Honolulu Police Department handed out 4,600 warnings and 353 citations for breaches of the executive order.

What on earth was Tampa Bay, Florida Mayor Castor (D) thinking?

Tampa Bay, Florida Mayor Jane Castor (Democrat) released 160 prisoners from Hillsborough County Jail over concerns of COVID-19. One prisoner ended up killing a civilian the day after being released.

In an interview with Fox NewsTucker Carlson, Democrat Gov. Philip Murphy (D) uttered the words “the Bill of Rights is above my pay grade.” He then went on to confess that he had not considered the effect of his restrictive executive orders on the Bill of Rights.U.S.

District Judge William Bertelsman ruled in May that Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s (D) restrictions on out-of-state travel were unconstitutional.

We were surprised to see Colorado Gov. Polis (D) adopt seemingly Republican style freedoms to his constituents.

Democrat Gov. Jared Polis spoke of Coloradans taking “personal responsibility“. Instead of imposing draconian police state penalties like most of his Democrat colleagues he left it to local authorities to sort out.

Mayor Hicks (D) of Grants, New Mexico decided to take a potshot at his Democratic Governor accusing her of adopting Nazi Germany style tactics.

Hicks criticised Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham’s Public Health Orders saying, “What the governor is doing is wrong” He allowed small business and golf courses to open before state police intervened and shut him down. He likened the New Mexico State Police behaving like the Gestapo.

It wasn’t just Democrats either. Republican primary candidate Daniel McCarthy took a swipe at Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey (R) saying, “No empathy! Dictator Ducey tacked on another 15 days of shutdowns, leaving Arizonans wondering why our own governor is so comfortable letting lives and businesses be crushed under the weight of our new regime.”

An app, called “Crush COVID RI” will be used by state health experts to conduct contact tracing and better understand the spread of the virus across the state.

South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) is the standout in terms of constituents openly pouring out love to her.

Gov. Noem was presented with a surprise parade by her constituents thanking her for her considered actions in response to putting the responsibility back on them.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) slammed the judiciary for its pettiness.

After a Texas hairdresser was jailed for not apologizing to the judge because she reopened her salon during lockdown, Gov Abbott said, “Throwing Texans in jail who have had their businesses shut down through no fault of their own is nonsensical, and I will not allow it to happen.” She was released.

Gov Cooper (D) of North Carolina copped a slap on the wrist from the judiciary

A federal judge blocked enforcement of a portion of Cooper’s order preventing churches from holding indoor services attended by more than 10 people.

Virginia’s Liberty University used the Bible to criticise Gov Ralph Northam’s (D) criticisms.

“We invite Governor Northam (D) to come and see our compliance for himself, rather than making false accusations in press conferences from Richmond. As the Ninth Commandment says, “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbor.””

Roggensack was blasted for her remarks saying the uptick in coronavirus cases in Brown County was due to meatpacking employees testing positive and not “regular folks.” Take that you lowly educated Trump-voting deplorables.

There were many governors channelling Enver Hoxha for despotic tendencies. The reality is that more mayors were enjoying their newfound powers.

We had LA Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) proudly champion he would have the water and electricity cut off for any businesses that didn’t comply with the lockdown. He also proudly banned sunbathing on dry sand, citing Australia as his benchmark.

We had Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot (D) justify having a haircut (considered non-essential to everyone else) because of her regular TV appearances despite berating Chicagoans like children with the threat of the heavy hand of the CPD to anyone who violated stay-at-home orders.

NY Mayor Bill De Blasio had his failed, “dob in your neighbour hotline“, his use of the gym (considered non-essential to everyone else) and the threat to fence off the beach at Coney Island were the peons to misbehave.

Washington DC Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) threatened to get compliance from her minions by “exercising the full force of our MPD, FEMS, DC Health and ABRA and the emergency authority to achieve it.”

NY Governor Andrew Cuomo extended the stay at home directive called PAUSE—which stands for “Policies Assure Uniform Safety for Everyone” til June 13th. As most know, NY has had the highest incidences of infections and deaths throughout the country. The high density of NYC compounded the problem.

He ordered that infected patients be sent to the nursing homes which caused a huge spike in deaths. There are now reports that the data was fiddled to cover up the scandal. He has since stopped sending people back to nursing homes. He said, “Older people, vulnerable people, are going to die from this virus…That is going to happen. Despite whatever you do.”

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) pandered to racism and many other issues from the identity politics playbook to disguise the fact she is being sued by other state legislators for extending the executive orders without their approval. Protestors that descended on Lansing complained they were sick of being treated like small children. 99.5% of Michigan residents haven’t been infected with coronavirus. 99.95% haven’t died.

Alas, Gov. Katie Brown (D) of Oregon has shown herself to be the most despotic leader. Despite 99.92% of Oregonians not being infected and 99.997% not having succumbed to the virus she had no compunction ramming her rule of law. Oregon has less than 4% of the infection rate and 2% of the death rate of NY State yet Brown has kept an “indefinite” stay at home order in place.

An Oregon judge declared that the coronavirus restrictions enacted by Gov. Brown were “null and void” because her emergency orders were not approved by the state legislature after 28 days. The judge agreed with the lawsuit launched by 10 churches against the State of Oregon which argued that the emergency powers only lasted for a month and that to lengthen them required legislative approval which she did not seek!

Not to be outdone, Gov. Brown went to the State Supreme Court where she has a pending review. The Governor praised the Supreme Court action by saying, “There are no shortcuts for us to return to life as it was before this pandemic. Moving too quickly could return Oregon to the early days of this crisis when we braced ourselves for hospitals to be overfilled.”

Worst of all was her treatment of hair salon owner Lindsey Graham who was fined $14,000 for opening her store because it was a non-essential business. She was further threatened with the prospect of having her lease terminated as she operated out of a building owned by the State of Oregon. The final straw was the dispatch of child protection services to Graham’s home to interrogate her 6-yo stepson and check if bathroom sanitation (aka the cleanliness under the toilet seat) was up to standard.

No one questions the tragic loss of life from this pandemic. We just question the heavy-handed tactics of governors and mayors who have a twisted version of data which is completely at odds with reality. This is all about politics.